


Nightmare

by talesofsymphoniac



Category: The Death Gate Cycle - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Genre: During Canon, During Hand of Chaos, Gen, Implied emotional/psychological abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Introspection, Missing Scene, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofsymphoniac/pseuds/talesofsymphoniac
Summary: On the way to Arianus, Bane has a nightmare, which leads him and Haplo to discuss a mutual acquaintance.
Relationships: Bane & Alfred Montbank, Bane & Haplo (Death Gate Cycle), Haplo & Alfred Montbank
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to write something during Hand of Chaos in which Bane and Haplo talk about Alfred for a while now, because Bane hardly ever addresses his servant turning out to be a Sartan, not even to mess with Haplo. 
> 
> This version of that conversation stemmed from the moment during Hand of Chaos when Bane first sees Hugh. He full on panics upon seeing Alfred over his shoulder. He recovers quickly, but it led me to wondering what exactly was the deal with Bane being so afraid by the sight of Alfred, and... here we are.

The  _ Dragon Wing  _ had successfully made its jump back to Arianus, along with its two passengers: one mensch child, and one adult Patryn.

Bane was still curled in on himself in the pile of supplies he’d been sitting on before Haplo put him to sleep. Even unconscious, he managed to appear almost absurdly angelic; his cheeks chubby and flushed, his golden hair tousled just so. Knowing the truth about the kid, the sight made Haplo snort.

As the dragonship flew closer to Drevlin’s surface, however, Haplo watched Bane’s features begin to change. His lip stuck out in a pout, and a few minutes later he groaned, shaking his head. His eyebrows furrowed, and displeased noises continued vaguely from the boy’s mouth as he began to toss and turn.

Curious, Haplo found himself watching Bane’s features as they screwed together still more unpleasantly. The murmuring grew steadily louder, as did the child’s restless motions. He was having a nightmare, judging from the tone of voice; though Haplo couldn’t make out any words, the discontentment of the groans and whines were clear enough.

Haplo suddenly felt much less inclined to wake the boy.

“No!”

The Patryn jumped in alarm as Bane shrieked, his limbs thrashing outward. “Stay away from me!” the child cried, throwing himself forwards into a seated position, his eyes blown open wide. Instinctively, Haplo moved to subdue the child, but Bane’s thrashing had stopped. His breath came in heaving gasps. “Go away, Alfred,” he choked out. “I don’t want you here.”

Haplo’s eyes narrowed.  _ Alfred?  _ He surveyed the boy again, wondering if there was some sort of trick at play that he had yet to spot. But there was no deviousness in the boy’s eyes, nor even the innocence he was so skilled at exuding. At the moment, the only impression Haplo could get from the boy was the paralyzing fear of a night terror.

“Alright, alright. Easy there.” Haplo moved forward to shake Bane awake. The moment his hand made contact with the child’s shoulder, Bane jumped as if he’d been shocked and tried to scramble backwards. Instead, he was held in place by Haplo’s firm grip. The Patryn was nearly certain, now, that the panic was not feigned; Bane was still half asleep in whatever nightmare he had been experiencing.

Haplo was familiar with night terrors. Most Patryns were, particularly small children, who would be quickly silenced by surrounding adults until the instinct to keep silent even in sleep was properly ingrained. Bane, who had no such survival instincts, fought his grip as he cried out. Haplo only held him more tightly.

“Snap out of it.”

Eventually, the fog in Bane’s eyes cleared, and he stopped his thrashing. Eyebrows raised, Haplo released him and took a step backwards. Bane blinked once, twice, then rubbed at his eyes with his fists. The boy who only a minute ago had looked almost inhumanely sweet and innocent was now sweaty, with blotchy skin and red eyes, still sniffling slightly.

Haplo crossed his arms and waited. For almost a minute, he silently observed Bane begin to fully awaken and recollect himself. “Must have been quite a nightmare,” he said casually, when Bane seemed about to stand and remove himself from Haplo’s scrutiny.

Clear blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I don’t know what you mean,” Bane said sulkily, pulling his knees up to his chest.

“Right,” Haplo snorted. “It’s perfectly normal for you to start screaming bloody murder in your sleep, is it?”

Bane said nothing. Instead, he wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face in them, only his blond hair sticking out haphazardly from the top. From any child but Bane, the move might have elicited some pity.

“Good thing there’s nothing out here to hear you,” Haplo continued, his tone light as he leaned idly against the wall. A quick glance outside told him he still had a little bit of time before they had to land. “Now then,” he said, turning back to Bane, “what about Alfred could possibly inspire anything like a nightmare?”

Even in his curled up position, Haplo could see Bane’s entire body flinch at the name.  _ Not a ploy?  _ Haplo wondered.  _ Or an even better actor than I had believed? _

“You would know,” Bane grumbled into his arms, so quietly Haplo almost didn’t catch it.

Haplo raised an eyebrow. “Would I?”

At this, Bane’s head poked up again, revealing his red-rimmed blue eyes glaring up at him. “Grandfather tells me  _ everything,  _ remember?” His mouth was still pressed into his arms, muffling his words. “He’s your regular best friend, these days,” he huffed. “Traitor,” he added, like an afterthought.

Haplo snorted. It was clear that despite his months in the Nexus, Bane’s understanding of the Patryns remained incredibly unsophisticated. Patryns barely had friends, let alone best friends. The closest thing to that, Haplo mused, would be a circle joining, and that was a rare thing. The idea of Alfred taking part in such a thing was absurd. The idea of Alfred in the Labyrinth at all was absurd-- or at least, Haplo recalled bitterly, it should have been.

In any case, it was true enough that Xar had not trusted Haplo’s temporary alliances with the Sartan, and no doubt Bane was well aware of that. Thus, Haplo concluded that Bane was scrambling for insults to fling towards Haplo in his moment of weakness. The boy was angry, petulant, that much was clear, but he was also still plainly shaken. The result was something too pathetic to be intimidating and too venomous to be pitiful; if Bane was attempting his usual brand of emotional manipulation, he was failing rather badly.

“Right,” Haplo said, allowing disbelief to creep into his tone. “I know firsthand just how… terrifying Alfred is.”

Bane rested his chin on his knees, then, his eyes far away. “All my life, he was there,” the boy murmured after a long period of silence. “Watching me. Waiting until he could  _ use  _ me.”

“Use you?”

Bane blinked, as if he had entirely forgotten Haplo’s presence. “Of course,” he said simply. “Why else?” He looked back to Haplo, his mouth spreading back into that evil bastard grin of his, but Haplo could still see a flicker of something in his bright blue eyes. “A perfect liar, that’s what he was,” Bane continued. “Undetected for over a decade. Lying in wait, pulling you along like a puppet, all so skillfully you never see the strings.”

Haplo scoffed. “You sure you aren’t projecting?”

To his surprise, Bane’s face darkened with anger. “What do you know-- he’s done it to you, too! Grandfather knows it-- he asked me all about Alfred, so he knows. He wanted to  _ control  _ me, steal me away to do whatever he wanted.” There was still that flicker in his eyes, the faintest tremor in his words. His fear was real, Haplo was certain. 

For the first time, he thought to wonder what had happened to the young boy he’d left alone with Xar during those months exploring the other three mensch worlds.  _ He asked me all about Alfred.  _ Of course, Xar would have wanted to know everything he could about the first and potentially only Sartan left alive. And Bane had lived with the man. Had grown up with him, in fact. Which made the fear in his eyes all the more baffling.

Had Bane known anything significant about Alfred’s Sartan heritage? Haplo thought about it, but ultimately discarded the possibility. Alfred’s disguise had not only stood up to his scrutiny, but the watchful eyes of the human nobility for over a decade. And though the man wasn’t a particularly good liar, he wouldn’t have had to be. Alfred, intentional or not, was a master of appearing absolutely unassuming. No doubt he had seemed to be the most unremarkable person in the entire castle, all while being perhaps the only interesting one among them all.

Still, Xar wouldn’t have ceased his interrogation until he was absolutely certain he had squeezed every possible piece of information from Bane. He would have used any magical means at his disposal to do so. Magical interrogation wasn’t Haplo’s specialty, but Haplo had no trouble envisioning methods of picking into the crevices of Bane’s mind. A delicate business, especially with a mensch: Xar would have had to hold back to avoid damaging his young champion.

But Bane seemed unharmed, Haplo argued to himself. If anything, the months had only made him more knowledgeable, more dangerous. Still, the Patryn felt slightly ill. Whatever Xar had done, whatever ideas he had planted, it had been enough to give Bane nightmares about his old, stumbling chamberlain.

“I’m sure Xar told you all sorts of things about him,” Haplo said slowly, cautiously. “But come on.” He let the corner of his lip quirk up in a dry grin. “You knew him, and you’re clever enough. Does Alfred really seem like the master manipulator type?”

“Oh,  _ please _ ,” Bane huffed. He was sitting up, now, eyeing Haplo shrewdly. Back into his usual standby of unnervingly intelligent childishness, it seemed. “He did it to my mother, and the king and queen, and now you, too!” A spark glinted in his eye, and Bane’s lips spread into a slight grin. “I should have taken lessons from him. My amulet didn’t work on you, remember? But maybe if I had stumbled over my own feet and fallen all over myself apologizing, you would have loved me, too.”

Haplo didn’t really know what to say to that; Bane was obviously recovering from his nightmare. His too-innocent smile was back, and at Haplo’s lack of response, he wiggled his shoulders in a performance of happiness. “I guess it’s just lucky he’s in the Labyrinth now,” he said sweetly. “This way he can’t harm either of us, right?”

The whole thing was a clumsy barb. Haplo decided he didn’t need to press it; the kid was scrambling to take back the high ground he’d lost after revealing his weakness. Haplo wouldn’t let him. “I suppose so,” he said neutrally.

Bane’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, but he seemed to be satisfied enough with that to stand up, looking about the dragonship. He ran over to the window. “We’re almost there!”

Haplo rolled his eyes, but stood straight, setting to the task of preparing the ship for landing. 

The conversation didn’t leave his mind as he worked. Something about what Bane had said still bothered him, and he couldn’t put his finger on why, exactly. Perhaps it was just lingering surprise that Bane’s perception of Alfred could have been so warped. Xar’s meddling or no, the boy had known the Sartan his whole life.

And despite what Bane had said, Haplo was pretty sure he knew enough about Alfred, by now, to guess what he would have been doing, those ten years as Bane’s servant. He would have hoped, however fruitlessly, for Bane to grow up to reject the power-grabbing and callousness of his father. He had said something like that, back on Abarrach, hadn’t he? It had been a failure, of course, as so many of Alfred’s fumbling and faltering attempts were. But still, Alfred would have wanted for decency to win out, as he always did. Alfred, Haplo knew, believed the best of people. Whether they deserved it or not.

And then Haplo had taken Bane to Xar. Away from any neutralizing influence Iridal may have hoped to provide. Xar had continued what Sinistrad had started, shaping Bane into a still more effective tool to seize power. Twisting Alfred, the only one besides the boy’s own mother who had hoped for him, into his ultimate enemy.

Alfred would have been devastated to see what had become of his young charge.

_ But what was he going to do, anyway?  _ Haplo thought, taking the steering stone in his hands.  _ The damage was already done. Even if Xar hadn’t pushed him, it wasn’t as if he would have had a normal childhood. _

As he steered the dragonship to the cratered surface of Drevlin, he watched the dog pad over to Bane. The boy looked down from where his nose pressed against the window, and he smiled delightedly before giving the creature a few pats on the head.

There was no point thinking about it, Haplo decided.  _ What’s done is done.  _ There was no point wondering what would have happened if he’d chosen differently. Alfred would have argued, would have said that Bane wasn’t beyond help, that they could still do something, but Alfred wasn’t here, and Haplo was, and Haplo had no idea how to help a child whose life he had already destroyed beyond repair.

_ Ah. _

Haplo swallowed, feeling the dragonship touch down on Arianus soil once again. This time, he was successful at pushing the matter out of his mind, eager to focus on other things.

Bane fell asleep that night, arms wrapped firmly around the dog, and Haplo kept his mind carefully blank. He draped a garment over the sleeping child, and he didn’t think about how many times Alfred must have done the same. He most certainly didn’t think of another child who might be asleep in the Labyrinth at that very moment.

And if he did, well, it wouldn’t have made a difference, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at [deathgatesideblog.tumblr.com!](deathgatesideblog.tumblr.com)


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